On Thursday, CNN reported that a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has criticized the former Trump administration's decision to relocate the headquarters of the Air Force's Space Command from Colorado Springs to Alabama — citing a lack of transparency.
"Space Command is the nation's newest warfighting combatant command, responsible for all military operations in outer space," reported Kristin Fisher. "The location of its headquarters has been the subject of intense debate since the final days of the Trump presidency when the administration recommended relocating it from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama."
Critics of the administration allege that the move was a solely political decision to reward Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who promoted former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about the election being stolen, and Colorado lawmakers, including usually pro-Trump Lauren Boebert, demanded an investigation into the matter.
"'Each of the senior military officials we interviewed stressed the importance of U.S. Space Command reaching full operational capability as soon as possible in order to counter national security threats and noted that the potential need to relocate personnel constituted an associated risk,' according to the report," CNN noted. "But the unclassified version of the GAO report that was released publicly did not weigh in on if the proposed relocation should be reversed. Instead, the report simply recommends 'that the Air Force develop guidance for future strategic basing decisions.'"
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Air Force leadership has denied that there was any politics behind the relocation — but Trump himself seemed to confirm there was almost immediately after in a radio interview, bragging he "single-handedly" ordered the move because "I love Alabama."
The GAO did not comment on the suitability of Redstone Arsenal, but Colorado lawmakers blasted the decision.
“Over the past year, we’ve repeatedly raised concerns that the previous administration used a flawed, untested, and inconsistent process to select a location for U.S. Space Command. The reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Defense Inspector General both confirm that the basing process lacked integrity and neglected key national security considerations," said Colorado U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) and U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn (R) and Jason Crow (D) in a joint statement.
“We now know that in a White House meeting in January 2021, senior military leadership recommended Colorado Springs as the preferred location for Space Command due to the unique ability of Peterson Space Force Base to reach Full Operational Capability significantly faster than any other potential location, and at a significantly lower cost. However, following this meeting a different location was announced as the selection, and justified with inconsistent documentation and unclear reasoning."
